Hero City Communicator: Mind Link, Specific Group of Minds, Any distance, No LOS Needed, Number of Minds (x16) (45 Active Points); Only With Others Who Have Mind Link (-1), Flashed As Radio and Hearing Groups, Not Mental Group (-1/2), IIF (-1/4), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4)

“Fantasia, what’s this talk about you wanting to leave Nowhere?” the elder asked her, his steel-grey eyes peering over the scratched-up glasses that rested on his nose. It was a tone intended to give the impression that the entire discussion, or at least the conclusion, had already been reached in the man’s mind. Most of the townsfolk didn’t press the issue when they heard it. He had underestimated Fantasia Oleander.

“You’ve heard?” She smiled innocently. “Of course, you’ve heard. Yes, I plan to help the fight against crime.”

“You plan to bring attention to us,” the elder replied, miffed that she hadn’t backed down as he’d intended for her to do.

“The spells are strong and have never failed,” she replied dismissively. “There’s no sign that they’re going to fail anytime soon, not even if I do leave.” She was referring to the spells set around Nowhere, Ohio, her home, which shielded outsiders from realizing that it was a place of magic.

“And what if they do fail?” the elder replied.

“I’m sure there are enough townsfolk to repair them,” she answered. Everyone in the town could work magic. “Besides, it's not like we don’t already interact with the outside world. Coach Perry has outsiders come here every month to play basketball against our high school.”

The elder nodded. “It didn’t used to be like that and I’m afraid the town council may have to tell Coach Perry to stop soon.”

Fantasia was upset. “Why?”

“I’m not sure the town can risk the exposure.”

“And what would you have us do? Are you and the council planning to keep us away from the outside world forever?”

“Wish that I could.”

“But you can’t. You know and I know that the outside world is getting closer. Our spells will last for a pretty long time, but what if they don’t and we can’t repair them? What then? It was only a few years ago that we had a group of terrorists crash a plane in Pennsylvania. What if they’d done it here?”

The elder was speechless, so she continued. “Oh, sure, we could keep it from crashing, but could we keep it quiet? Listen, the world is getting smaller and you know it. The people of Nowhere have to be ready. And I’ll tell you this: If we wait here, huddled and hidden, for the day to come when the outside world finally realizes what we’ve been hiding from them, it's not going to be pretty. We need to take an active role before that. We need to start taking an active role now.”

“Fantasia, if you leave, we might not let you come back. You should know that,” the elder stated.

She was about to open her mouth again, but quickly shut it. Her family was the most important thing in the world to her. Could she risk never seeing them again?

She turned away and faced the wall. She didn’t want the elder to see how much that potential threat had shaken her. “But... but if I don’t leave, what’s going to happen when we are discovered? What’s going to happen to Bobby? What’s going to happen to Mikey?” She turned to face the elder again. “You know the spells aren’t going to last. I have to do this.”

The elder nodded, accepting her decision. “I wish you the best, child. I really do. Let’s hope that you will one day return to us.”

Personality

Fantasia is very strong willed, outgoing, and cheerful. She has a small-town charm, a very earthy personality that helps to keep the team rooted as it runs from massive adventure to massive adventure. This lays over a much deeper and harder to see current of the fantastic, as she is the team’s witch. She is the kind of character who can be making a pot of vegetable soup or chili while she’s doodling up a spell to conjure a familiar.

Quote

“My parents named me Fantasia. They once saw a cartoon by that name that they loved. It has dancing hippos and walking broomsticks and, hey, you wanna be a dancing hippo?”

Powers

Fantasia is the team’s witch. The flexibility of her powers is truly astounding, as she seems to be able to invoke any effect for which she can create a spell (which means a rhyming incantation). However, her spells tend to produce exactly what she requests (i.e., the effects follow the specific wording of the incantation). In addition, she is usually seen with her pet raven Poe who is, himself, a magical beast able to speak English.

Appearance

Fantasia has a “home-spun” look about her, with a freckled face and long reddish-brown hair that she wears pulled back into a ponytail. She is voluptuous and overweight, though not obese. She looks out of shape, but is actually in good shape, having grown up on a farm and working out regularly with the other team members. In her superhero role, she wears a robe of a bluish-grey hue, with the hood down showing her face. She does not conceal her identity.